Jiang Yubai began to look forward to his undergraduate life. He said, “We’ll be schoolmates again.”
“Yes!” Lin Zhixia nodded.
From that day on, Jiang Yubai intensified his review efforts. His mindset evolved from “I hope I can get into Cambridge” to “I must get into Cambridge.”
Jiang Yubai canceled all recreational activities. When friends called him to go horseback riding at the ranch, he politely declined. When his uncle invited him to attend a concert, he repeatedly made excuses.
Jiang Yubai immersed himself in an atmosphere of study, occasionally imagining his future with Lin Zhixia. After completing his undergraduate degree, he would return to China, enter the family business, and fulfill his responsibilities, while Lin Zhixia would teach at a university and continue her scientific research. He sincerely hoped that by then, his relationship with Lin Zhixia could break through the boundaries of friendship.
He was willingly enduring this long wait.
*
Jiang Yubai’s self-imposed training regimen lasted for a very long time. By December of that year, he boarded a plane and traveled alone to Cambridge, England, for his interview.
On the day of the interview, Jiang Yubai woke up at six in the morning, took a shower, combed his hair, put on his watch, dressed in a shirt and suit, and paced back and forth in his room. He admitted he was a bit nervous because he couldn’t accept failure.
At this time, it was just past two o’clock in the afternoon in Beijing. Lin Zhixia sat on her dormitory bed, opened her laptop, and sent Jiang Yubai a QQ message: “Are you awake? Can we video chat?”
She waited a few seconds, and Jiang Yubai replied: “Yes.”
Lin Zhixia started the video call and immediately saw Jiang Yubai. Facing the computer screen, she clapped her hands and couldn’t stop praising him: “You look so handsome today! You have such presence!”
Jiang Yubai hadn’t expected Lin Zhixia to be so straightforward from the start.
Lin Zhixia added: “Step back a bit, I want to see your full outfit.”
Jiang Yubai stood motionless.
Lin Zhixia urged: “Hurry up, let me see.”
While Jiang Yubai said on the surface: “There’s nothing special about me…” his legs involuntarily stepped backward, and he deliberately stood directly in front of the camera so Lin Zhixia could observe him from the front.
Their gazes met through the screen, as if traversing through time, returning to the days when they spent every moment together.
Lin Zhixia reached out her finger and gently touched the camera. In tune with her thoughts, Jiang Yubai’s finger also reached up—in the virtual online world, their fingertips touched. Lin Zhixia typed another line: “Good luck with the interview! You’re the best!”
As if possessed, Jiang Yubai asked her in return: “In your eyes, am I the best?”
“Of course!” Lin Zhixia was certain. She continued: “You’re the most excellent boy I know, with a great personality, gentle, smart, steady, rational, patient—you are the best!”
Lin Zhixia’s wild praise satisfied Jiang Yubai’s shameful vanity.
Jiang Yubai no longer felt any nervousness. He ate breakfast, reviewed his notes one more time, and left the room with composure.
*
December weather was somewhat cold, the sky showing a gloomy blue. Piercing cold stirred in the wind, and ancient marble buildings of the college stood silently all around, surrounding several square, neatly trimmed, bright green lawns.
Jiang Yubai crossed a stone path through the center of the lawn, slightly adjusting his cuffs. Glancing around, he saw more than a dozen high school students dressed in suits.
These students came from all over the world. They were all outstanding among their peers. Some students revealed their strengths and backgrounds during conversations, creating an invisible pressure.
Jiang Yubai overheard a student’s discouraged words: “The probability of Trinity College accepting me is the same as my winning the lottery…”
Jiang Yubai walked up to this male student: “No matter how small the probability, it’s better than having no chance at all.”
The boy shook hands with him: “Where did you attend high school?”
“In Beijing,” Jiang Yubai answered honestly.
The boy’s eyes lit up: “Fellow countryman?”
Jiang Yubai denied: “I’m not a native Beijinger.”
Jiang Yubai and this male student chatted briefly, maintaining polite yet cool conversation until the proctor led them into the examination room. The proctor was a university student from the school, looking very young, probably only eighteen or nineteen. His attitude was very relaxed, and he even made a joke, telling everyone not to be afraid of the written test.
Jiang Yubai was never afraid of written tests.
Besides, this written test was only one hour long.
The questions on the exam paper were difficult, testing one’s mathematical foundation.
Ever since meeting Lin Zhixia, Jiang Yubai had studied mathematics diligently day after day, year after year, never slacking off. He held himself to the standards of high school mathematics competitions, firmly believing in the principles of “the slow bird must start early” and “diligence can compensate for lack of talent.”
Now, his hard work paid off. He smoothly completed the first six questions, got stuck on the seventh, concentrated deeply, wrote with flying speed, and finally managed to answer it when the proctor said: “You have ten minutes left.”
Only ten minutes remained.
Jiang Yubai still had three questions left to answer.
For the eighth question, he had no time to think carefully and wrote the answer purely on intuition, using the same method to finish the ninth question before the exam ended.
Then, Jiang Yubai took this paper and walked toward the interview location.
The written test and interview were almost seamlessly connected, with the written test serving as a prelude and foundation for the interview. Completing seven questions on the paper was not enough to stand out among competitors; Jiang Yubai needed to make a deep impression on the interviewers to gain admission.
Both of Jiang Yubai’s interviewers were professors with extremely high academic achievements. As soon as he stepped into the office, he felt the professors’ gaze. Without hurrying or worrying, he exchanged pleasantries with the professors and handed over his exam paper with both hands.
The first professor asked Jiang Yubai questions based on the paper, which Jiang Yubai answered very fluently. The professor smiled and nodded, then discussed the ninth and tenth questions with him—both of these questions were actually beyond Jiang Yubai’s ability range.
The second professor began to guide Jiang Yubai, providing him with a simple line of thought, and he immediately grasped the key points, verbally presenting a solution.
Jiang Yubai’s home tutor had previously instructed him: Cambridge interviews are a bit tricky; you need to strike the right tone—you can’t be too forceful, showing any aggression, nor can you submit to authority without your own opinions. You can’t talk non-stop, nor can you be silent. You should be gentle, polite, confident, honest, trust your judgment, and correct your mistakes promptly.
Jiang Yubai adhered to this principle.
Both professors smiled.
After discussing the questions on the paper with Jiang Yubai, one professor gave him a quick-answer question: Suppose you’re playing a game where you have a coin. After tossing the coin, if it lands heads up, the game continues and you get one more yuan. If it lands tails up, the game immediately ends. What is your expected value?
Jiang Yubai began to answer. He said that when tossing a coin, the probabilities of heads and tails are not certain because the question doesn’t describe the condition of the coin itself. He assumed the probability of heads to be a, tails to be b, and stated that the expected value should be a/b.
Next, the professor transformed this question into game theory, increasing the number of players.
Jiang Yubai picked up a marker and drew a diagram on a whiteboard. The professor continuously increased the difficulty of the questions, connecting the fields of mathematics and economics, and even examining a bit of philosophy.
Jiang Yubai never lost his composure. His thinking was always clear, and he could cite relevant references, with a very broad perspective.
To achieve intellectual resonance with Lin Zhixia, Jiang Yubai had read countless books over the years. Lin Zhixia’s thinking pattern was very unconventional; her imagination ran wild, especially when she was young. She didn’t consider Jiang Yubai’s mental state at all; whenever she caught him, she could talk about anything.
As the interview was about to end, Jiang Yubai thought of Lin Zhixia and momentarily lost focus for a few seconds. He heard the professor compliment him, felt relieved, said goodbye to the professors, and slowly walked out the main door of the room.
Outside, the north wind howled, the cold invaded, and Jiang Yubai walked alone on the road. He recalled the entire interview process and felt it went reasonably well—not particularly brilliant, but without any mistakes.
After Jiang Yubai returned to his accommodation, friends and family called him.
Jiang Yubai’s uncle asked if he was confident, and he summarized: “I’m not certain.”
His uncle worried that he had done poorly and didn’t dare ask further.
Lin Zhixia asked him how the exam went, and he replied in detail: “It went okay. Besides mathematics and economics, there was also philosophy content. The teacher asked me if humans have free will, which is something you often talk about…”
“How did you answer?” Lin Zhixia asked.
Jiang Yubai calmly said: “I cited the Kantian school’s hypothesis.”
“Then there should be no problem,” Lin Zhixia analyzed. “You’re an economics student, you understand free will and determinism, you’ve read Kant’s works, you’re so excellent, you’ll be admitted!”
Jiang Yubai acted very modestly: “Perhaps others are more excellent than I am.”
After Jiang Yubai said this, Lin Zhixia thought he lacked confidence, so she praised him several more times, making him very happy. He patiently waited for Cambridge’s admission results, eager to know if he could study abroad together with Lin Zhixia.
*
In January 2011, Jiang Yubai returned to the provincial city to prepare for the New Year. His high school career was coming to an end, and in September of this year, he would become a proud university student.
In the eyes of Jiang Yubai’s high school classmates, he was an outstanding young man. He was proficient in English and French, had a solid theoretical foundation, and achieved extremely high test scores. When doing group assignments with classmates, he always played a leadership role. Everyone respected him and almost forgot that he was younger than everyone else.
Moreover, Jiang Yubai was not at all arrogant. He defined himself as an “ordinary, average person.”
Jiang Yubai’s high school classmates almost unanimously believed that he would certainly be admitted to the university of his choice.
His classmates had foresight.
One morning in January 2011, Jiang Yubai opened the application system and immediately saw Cambridge’s acceptance letter. He calmly closed the webpage, reopened it, confirmed that he had received the relevant email, read the acceptance letter again, and only then announced the good news to his friends and family.